Technical Lost my home in the Camp Fire: Salvage Advice appreciated. :(

Thank God that you and y our family survived that awful fire. Seems like lots of the guys have the same advice. Try to get the engine , clean it up, paint it and make it look nice. It is still that same engine with the memories.

 

I’ll agree with all that said keep. Make it a piece of art. Sorry for your hardship and loss.

 

Visited a friend in Ramona Ca. a couple of years ago where a fires ravaged the area several years previous & was shocked to see several burned out vehicles still setting around, several rural properties had the shells along outer fence rows & saw some with vehicles arranged in a circle around a camp fire area, grime reminders & not sure I could or would want to relive the pain, Then again I for one have a yard art partial 32 5w well used & abused & ravaged by time nailed on the garage wall, just couldn't scrap it out...….

 

So very sorry for your loss, no words can ease such things. I understand keeping sentimental stuff from a little different angle: my father passed in March & my sister 3 years ago. I saved all of her horse stuff, saddles, show outfits, ribbons, etc. I felt guilty & ashamed to throw these things out as though it would be a desecration to her memory. So her stuff just sat. Finally this past summer I heard of a sick kids riding arena & donated her stuff to them. They're starting a library there in her name with her horse books. As for Dads stuff & learning from Donna's memory: feelings aren't facts & saving their stuff can't bring them back. I kept a few items from Dad collections & sold the rest. I donated the money to the humane society that he loved. My point is that stuff is stuff & at times saving it can be very stressful. My memories can't be taken away & saving their 'stuff' don't replace those memories. This is just my stuff. May many blessings come your way in the future

 

Thanks to everyone that posted advice and even offers to help. I didn't see those posts until just now... I just got back into Ventura last night after being up there for a couple days. I went up there with intention of getting that 235 out of the pile but what I realized is that the level of destruction is beyond my ability to deal with on a limited time frame. Just creating access to it would have taken most of a day if not more. It's tough to admit to myself but some things are just beyond one person's ability to safely and practically manage. So I had to make decision to pick my battles based on what was best for my family.
I had to take a significant amount of time to salvage things for my family that were visible without much digging. My wife's grandmother's china, for instance. I'd say about 50 pieces survived whole, but definitely not unscathed. After that effort to try and find family heirlooms or remnants of them, I dug through my shop and found as many parts as I could that I felt could be salvaged. I think I got the majority of the parts of the running gear of my 55.1 Chevy NAPCO. I grabbed the SM420 transmission, transfer case, and the little Brownie Jr. overdrive. and a bunch of other odds and ends. I honestly don't know if any of them are salavageable or not but they were manageable to move on my own. I had to pry my dad's old MAC toolboxes open. I wasn't able to get much out of them but enough that I feel like I got something. I was just barely able to get a large enough hole cut in the side of my gun safe to pull the remains of all the rifles and pistols. I think if it'd been a normal house fire that the safe would have held up. The stocks were all charcoal that still had shape instead of ash so that tells me that there was not much if any oxygen in the safe for it to burn. Unfortunately they
all crumbled so the prolonged heat saturation in the coals of the fire is what did them in. As far as I know there was no hot spot suppression ( water on the house ) until three or four days after the fire started. So the whole thing just smouldered that whole time.

So as far at the engine goes, I decided to keep the tins I could get access to. The valve cover, side cover, flywheel inspection cover, and all the fasteners. I then started to cut the block serial number off of the casting but my last die grinder battery died before I could finish. I have to go back up there to take care of registering with FEMA ( they say we all need to do it even if we don't think we qualify for any benefits ) and a few other local agencies. So I will probably go back up and finish getting that engine number. I may dig for a few more things since I'll already be there but ultimately I've come to terms with the fact that I just need to cut it all loose.

Thank you all again. I'm sure this isn't the last you'll hear from me. I have a long fight ahead of me with the insurance company and the process of restarting our life somewhere else is just beginning. I have seen enough of the devastation in our town to know that we will not be rebuilding there no matter what. At the end of the day we'll own an acre there that might be worth something again someday.

I am glad that those of you who, like me, might have been ignorant of the fine print and or needing to review your insurance policies have now been prompted to do so.

-Josh

 

Gut wrenching report Josh. Keep your chin up, better days are ahead of you.

 

Take care, so sad. Ron